How To Make Decorative Chocolate Bowls

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This craft comes directly from Mare over at Gioia Bakes, as I personally lack the skill and patience to pull something off this decorative and unique. Trust me when I say the best party about this “How To” is not the decorative bowls, but the chocolate explosion that happened while making them. Serving it up on a silver platter, here is “How to make a decorative chocolate bowl.”

“Sarah, there was chocolate on the poor dog. I tried chasing after the dog to get it off of him, but couldn’t see him for all of the chocolate that had splattered on my glasses. I am still finding chocolate, everywhere. The curtains, the spices, the k-cups. There is chocolate everywhere!”- Mare

Have you seen those perfectly shaped decorative chocolate bowls that have been floating around search categories for “chocolate” on Pinterest? Every time I see one I think to myself, “Oh how nice. Those are pretty.“.

I should probably tell you that before this post, my idea of “fancy” was scooping perfectly rounded balls of cookie dough on to a pan with my new cookie scoop.

The small things in life make me happy.

So what’s with putting together these chocolate bowls anyways? Here are the absolute must have’s needed to pull it off.

chocolate.

Oh -there’s more.

A bag of semi-sweet chocolate. You can get creative here and concoct a mix of whatever chocolate you want.

Nonpareil’s – I had to Google this term. Why didn’t you just say sprinkles! AKA the little sprinkle balls you get in the variety pack in the baking section at the grocery store.

Something to put in the bowls when finished. Chocolate mousse, cool whip, or diced strawberries. The options are limitless.

Mare’s recipe for quick chocolate mousse: Take one small tub of Cool Whip, mix it with the small box of instant chocolate putting and folded in about 2 cups of fresh whipped cream unsweetened.

A silicone mat and a good sturdy spoon.

A microwave safe bowl. Sorry double boiler fans. I am using the quick method. Have you seen my post on melting pots? That double boiler idea might not be a good idea right now.

So let’s get to it. How to make chocolate bowls.

Basically to make the bowls you take water balloon size balloons and blow them up so the diameter of the base of the balloon resembles a cup or a small bowl. Do not fill the balloons. Spray the balloon lightly with pan spray to prevent the balloon from sticking in the chocolate as it dries. – Mare

I would like to interject here and say that having something to put the balloons in would be a good idea. The last thing you need are a bunch of slippery balloons all over the kitchen when you are dealing with hot chocolate.

To melt the chocolate, put about 1/4 a cup in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium heat. Check and stir the chocolate every 30 seconds or so to make sure the morsels are melting evenly. Once you get a good melt going, add more chocolate and let the existing heat help melt the remaining morsels.

Once the chocolate is melted, take you spoon and add quarter size dollops of chocolate on to your silicone mat. Make sure to space them out enough so they are not too close once you set the balloons on top.

Next comes the whole reason I wrote this post. Dipping the balloons in the chocolate. I don’t have a formula for “how cool” the chocolate should be before attempting this task. One would think that the chocolate should be cool enough to still hold its liquid form while not being hot enough to bust the balloon. In Mare’s case, the chocolate was not quite cool enough and caused the balloon to burst sending melted chocolate all over her, the kitchen, the dog, and the curtains.

Dunk the balloon in the cooled chocolate about as far up to resemble a small cup or bowl. Pull the balloon out and place up right on the dollop of chocolate. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes or so until completely harden. Remove the tray and take something sharp to burst the balloons, leaving a perfectly shaped chocolate bowl. – Mare

Once hardened in the fridge, you are now free to get creative with the decorating. An idea would be to add melted chocolate around the rim of the bowl and then add the Nonpareil’s (sprinkles). Another idea would be to take melted white chocolate and create a swirl pattern on the inside of the bowl.

Here is an additional idea if you have leftover melted chocolate —>

I hope this tutorial helps in your ventures of making chocolate dessert bowls and provided tips to spare you the chocolate mess and the poor dog!

Until the next Hot Mess……

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I am loving this idea so much. I can see serving Ice Cream in it at a party. How cool would that be? Thanks for linking up on the #HomeMattersParty this week. Looking forward to seeing what you link up with next.